Hospital Leadership
Wally Vette, Chief Executive Officer
Wally Vette joined LAMC as Chief Executive Officer effective June 7, 2010, following a 26-year career at Memorial Medical Center, a 298-bed regional medical center in Las Cruces, also affiliated with LifePoint Hospitals. He served as Assistant Administrator for the past six years, working as part of the senior management team to implement new programs, services and initiatives with administrative responsibility for a variety of both clinical and non-clinical departments. He oversaw a number of construction programs, including the addition of 20 critical care beds, a new cardiac catheterization laboratory and tomography services. He also served as the hospital’s Ethics and Compliance Officer. Other positions he held at the hospital include Vice-President of Operations and Assistant Vice-President of Support Services. He began his career there as Director of Food and Nutrition Services.
Active in the community, Vette has been a member of the Board of the Healthcare Foundation of Southern New Mexico since 2007. He is a member and past president of the Sunrise Lions Club. He is currently serving as President of the Peace Lutheran Church Council.
Professionally, he holds memberships in the Health Care Compliance Association, from which he has earned certification, and in the American Society of Food Service Administrators, for which he has served on the Board.
Vette earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and completed graduate school at St. Louis University. His wife Johnine will join him this summer.
Heather M. Teter, Chief Financial Officer 
Heather M. Teter has 20-plus years of healthcare experience. She originally came to Los Alamos in 1996 as Director of Information Systems and Fiscal Services, a position in which she served until 2000 when she was promoted to Chief Financial Officer. Prior to working at LAMC, Heather was the comptroller for a long-term care facility in Illinois and has additional multiple years experience in the home-care industry. Ms. Teter received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Illinois. She and her husband, Dave, have two daughters. When not working, she enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling, and supporting her children in their sports activities.
Jim Wells, RN, Chief Nursing Officer 
Effective April 5, 2010, Jim Wells, RN, is LAMC's Chief Nursing Officer.
Wells comes to Los Alamos from Selma, AL, where he has been the CNO at Vaughan Regional Medical Center since 2008. At Vaughn, a 175-bed acute-care hospital, he was responsible for more than 260 nursing employees and oversaw the development of all policies and procedures related to nursing care. He developed and implemented a new cardiac interventional program, as well as initiating an Emergent Elder Care program that analyzed visits of patients greater than 65 in the Emergency Department. One of Wells’ professional interests is performance improvement related to benchmarks such as Core Measures and constituency satisfaction, with special emphasis on raising HCAHPS scores for inpatients. He also participated in efforts that raised Physician Satisfaction scores to #1 in LifePoint for 2009.
Prior to his position at Vaughn Regional, Wells was the Director of Quality/Risk Management at Valley View Medical Center in Ft. Mohave, AZ. There he was responsible for all regulatory compliance with state, federal and The Joint Commission requirements for accreditation. He has held other professional positions including Director of Nursing, Director of Risk Management, Risk Manager, Case Manager, and staff and charge nurse at various facilities around the country. Wells received his Associate Degree in Nursing from Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, AL, and his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix. He is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Nursing, also from the University of Phoenix. Wells’ community service projects include Advanced Cardiac Life Support instructor from 2006 to the present, and Red Cross CPR instructor from 2004 until the present. He is also an Independent Certified Nursing Assistant Evaluator Experior Testing for the Florida Region from 2004 until the present.